"So I have a very simple message for Russia: We know what you are doing and you will not succeed, because you underestimate the resilience of our democracies, the enduring attraction of free and open societies, and the commitment of Western nations to the alliances that bind us."

erm, except for President Donald J Trump and incipient Brexit. A word to the wise, Mrs May - they already bloody well won . . .

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"Just because the village idiots have spoken doesn't mean we have to destroy the village"

The only thing the UK has going for it right now is that, despite their best efforts, Russia doesn't have any real friends among the big three parties here.

But thats about it.

And once we're out in the cold, we'll be looking for economic partners to take up the slack. Cue Russia and China...

China won a tender to build the first nuclear reactor in the UK in years, there was an argument that depending on an external country to maintain it would be cheaper then building up the knowledge base in the UK, and China said they could build it faster.

It's been delayed massively and China has said sourcing materials is more expensive because of Brexit.

The majority of people are still in favour of leaving the EU. But if it were to go to the polls again and clarify:

The republic have said that NI having any kind of a border results in WTO rules and no deal, which is almost a certainty now, but I wish it wasn't my home country having to play the veto card because it makes us look difficult and allows us to be scapegoated.

I think there would be a lot more people in favour of leaving the EU but remaining in the EEA.

Of course, this would just further agitate and annoy the "Hard Brexit Now" crowd, but I do believe they are a minority among leave voters. While there's a good number of people in this country motivated by immigration, and a good number of those motivated by racism, there's a good amount of misinformation, lies and longstanding tabloid prejudices mixed up in that, and I think some of those people have seen they've been lied to, or that the economic hit will outweigh the benefits.

Staying in the EEA would resolve the vast majority of the territorial problems, both NI and Scotland, resolve the majority of the trade issues and provide a framework for the UK's continuing association with EU bodies in the manner of Norway and Switzerland, thus calming political tensions and foreign investors.

But of course, we've committed ourself to cutting our collective throat, so that's what we're going to do. I'm just hoping at this point that the EU is being serious about this "continuing EU citizenship" for British citizens business that is being floated.

Unless something very surprising happens, it will be Mary Lou McDonald as head of SF in the Republic and of SF overall, in Northern Ireland it will be Michelle O'Neill though she is very inexperienced.

I like Mary Lou, over the past years SF have become our strongest opposition party and they have done a good job of it, but often go for low hanging fruit and very easy contrarian issues. She is also the logical next step of the peace process and moving past the troubles. Their end goal is obvious: they want a border poll in Northern Ireland to join the Republic, and will leverage the Brexit talks to try and cause it.There’s not a chance of the fence sitting disgruntled unionists swaying to leave the U.K with Gerry in charge, but without him, SF in Northern Ireland will do their best to be the kinder / gentler party, all they need to do is offer a better option then Teresa May and Arlene Forrester and all they seem to be able to offer is a lost decade of Brexit.

In the Republic, SF have their own role, the biggest drawback to SF ever being taken as a serious contender for government was the IRA baggage, the Media, Fianna Fail and Fianna Gael have always used IRA mudslinging to Gerry Adams as a last resort to undermine his credibility, it will be much harder to make it stick with Mary Lou.This is the best time for Gerry to step away, there will likely be an election here in March/April and giving a few months for Mary Lou to establish herself and lead the party well and they could well get a small minority government propped up by independents which is roughly what we have now but slightly left of centre as opposed to right of centre.

She's not in the least bit classy, she appeals to a very low mentality that glorify the IRA as hero's that could do no wrong. Normally that is teenagers but a small subset of people don't grow out of it.

So yeah, what I didn't want to happen, happened. The republic is playing the veto card because May wont commit to what her policy is on the Northern Ireland border, so far we have had:

No border.

Hard physical border that we will be paying for, which doesn't account for all the homes that are built straddling the border, or the roads, shopping centers etc.

Soft border (of which no one has explained what this is but at some point cameras were mentioned).

We've been accused of making demands of the UK, trying to derail brexit, and being uppity Irish who don't know better so we should just defer to our UK superiors better knowledge.Despite the fact that the only statement our ministers have had has been repeatedly hammered home:"We will not progress to the next phase until the UK commits to its border strategy". We're not even pushing for any of the three options above (but the hard border would make negotiation difficult), it has literally just been a case of "PICK ONE".